Section 2. Drug Metabolism
1. i. Referring to the primary literature, investigate the metabolism of paracetamol; Using a diagram as an aid, explain the metabolism of paracetamol noting the types of reaction (functionalisation, conjugation) and enzyme families (CYP, UGT, SULT) involved in these pathways. There are two primary metabolic pathways for paracetamol within the liver – the first and most common is glucuronidation, wherein the paracetamol binds to the glucuronic acid enzyme. Sulfation, which accounts for most of the rest of these occasions, has the paracetamol combining with a sulphate to form a nontoxic conjugate (Hendrickson et al., 2006). (Hendrickson e al., 2006) ii. ...
